In current single-node computer systems, all clients communicate with the system and ingest data into the node. Cluster systems represent a scale-out solution to single node systems by providing a set of networked computers that work together so that they essentially form a single system. Each computer forms a node in the system and runs its own instance of an operating system. The cluster itself has each node set to perform the same task that is controlled and scheduled by software. Capacity is naturally increased based on the number of computers and is easily scalable by adding or deleting nodes, as needed.
In a deduplication backup system utilizing virtual machines (VMs), each VM runs its own file system, such as a Data Domain Restorer (DDR) or Data Domain File System (DDFS) by EMC Corp., along with other possible applications. In the DDFS (or similar) file system, protocol-specific namespaces are presented to clients/applications for accessing the logical file system layer. Some example protocol namespaces include: Data Domain Virtual Tape Library, Data Domain Boost storage units, and CIFS/NFS fileshares. Files and directories for each namespace are usually stored in Mtrees, which are user-defined logical partitions of the DDFS that enable more granular management of the file system. Mtree replication enables the creation of copies of Mtrees at secondary locations. In DDFS, the files and directories within Mtrees as well as Mtree snapshots, all reference the same pool of unique segments called a collection, which is made up of log-structured containers that organize the segments on disk to optimize throughput and deduplication effectiveness.
Access to Mtrees is traditionally managed at an individual IP address level. It is relatively simple manage access to Mtrees on a single backup appliance. However, when the backup appliance is built on a cluster with multiple nodes, managing accesses to an Mtree using individual IP addresses becomes more complicated with the increased number of nodes. Thus, under current systems based on single-node backup appliances, access using a single IP address is simple. In advanced systems that have multiple nodes, multiple IP addresses are required, and access to Mtrees for such multiple IP addresses can be problematic.
What is needed, therefore is a system that provides simple access to backup and restore datasets on Mtrees on a clustered backup appliance.
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